


Eldritch Hangover

by Milieu



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, No Plot/Plotless, References to Elder Gods, Some Fluff, Warlocks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:15:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24635194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milieu/pseuds/Milieu
Summary: The morning after is often a good time to do some self-reflection.
Relationships: Original D&D Character(s)/Original D&D Character(s)
Kudos: 1





	Eldritch Hangover

When Rhys woke, the faint light slanting in through the bedroom windows told him that it was early evening. His body felt heavy, and his mouth was dry, but perhaps surprisingly, he wasn't in pain. Moving was sluggish and difficult, his limbs feeling weighed down.

"Ellis?" He croaked, hoping that his partner was in the house and nearby. He could _kill_ for a glass of water right about now.

At the thought of killing, something stirred inside him - not physically, but somehow, somewhere deeper.

 _Behave_ , Rhys told the thing as sternly as he could manage. He got no response and expected none; he wasn't sure the thing was entirely sentient, at least not in the same way that he was. It had emotions, or a semblance of them, but very little _nuance_.

Fortunately, it was only a moment before he heard soft footsteps from the cottage's kitchen, and Ellis appeared in the doorway of the bedroom, looking both concerned and relieved. His short blonde hair was in disarray, and Rhys could fondly picture how he'd probably been running his hands through it while fidgeting and waiting for Rhys to awaken. Rhys smiled weakly at him and tried to sit up in bed. Ellis hurried to his side to help.

"Water," was all Rhys managed once Ellis had propped him up on the pillows, and Ellis nodded and disappeared back in the direction of the kitchen, returning a minute later with a pitcher of water and a glass. He filled the glass and helped Rhys cup his unsteady hands around it, supporting them as Rhys gulped the water down.

"How do you feel?" Ellis asked softly once he'd finished. He was still holding the glass, but Rhys watched his fingers flex unconsciously. He'd be anxiously clasping his hands if not for the fact that he was more occupied with Rhys at the moment.

"Worn out," Rhys admitted. He almost reached for his glasses on the bedside table out of habit, but the pitcher of water was in the way, and he really didn't feel like getting out of bed. The room was slightly blurry at a distance, but Ellis's features were always sharp and clear in his mind, if not in his sight. Instead, he reached up to lay an unsteady hand on top of Ellis's. Ellis's gaze on his face was searching, seeking out any sign that Rhys was... not himself.

"How long was I out?" Rhys asked. "I could probably sleep through the night, no matter." He smiled, and it came easily. Ellis's smile in return was thin, but there was an edge of relief to it.

"Just for the day." Ellis tried to keep his tone light, but Rhys knew without probing further that it had hardly been "just" a day for Ellis. Not while Rhys was in the throes of a fit that he'd intentionally brought on himself, writhing and spitting words in a tongue that made the skin crawl. Not when things had quieted, and Rhys had gone limp and spent hours upon hours laying unconscious with no sign that he'd ever come out of it. Rhys didn't have to have witnessed it to know what it had been like; he'd learned quite enough in his studies.

"Can you tell?" Rhys asked, pride overtaking him for a moment in spite of himself. "I did it."

Ellis shuddered almost imperceptibly. If Rhys hadn't known him so well, and hadn't had his hand resting on Ellis's, he might not have noticed. "How does it... feel?"

"Not that different," Rhys admitted. "But- it's there."

"Is it-" Ellis stopped, biting his lip.

"What?"

"Is it... looking at me?"

Rhys raised his hand to cup Ellis's cheek, and Ellis reflexively laid his own over it. "I suppose it can see you," Rhys said after a moment's consideration. "But just because I can. It's not actively _looking_ , I don't think."

Ellis nodded, seeming a little more relieved. "...You don't seem any different," he murmured, pulling his hand away from Rhys's to instead brush his fingers through Rhys's hair, combing the long, dark strands back from his face.

Rhys smiled at him again. "It's still me, El."

Ellis let out a breath. "I know," he said quietly, in a tone that suggested he hadn't been sure until just now. Rhys couldn't hold it against him; Ellis had been opposed to his studies and experiments from the beginning. He hadn't given in to Rhys's insistence upon trying to put his studies into practice because Rhys had successfully convinced him; it was more a war of attrition than anything. Rhys felt a trickle of guilt when he thought of Ellis alone since the early hours of the morning, pacing around in the kitchen because he wanted to avoid disturbing Rhys in the bedroom, having to listen to him wail and rave and then finally fall silent. Rhys had been _right_ , and he seemed no worse for wear really, but acknowledging Ellis's feelings and comforting him if he'd accept it were more important than the vindication right now.

He had thought that his emotions might catch the thing's attention - that at the very least, it might be curious. There was nothing like a response, however. He was _aware_ of it in a way that he couldn't have described, like something was hovering just on the edges of his consciousness, lazily looking at the world through his eyes, but uncaring about what it saw. Maybe it shouldn't have been surprising, but he'd expected... oh, malice. Condescension. Not apathy, like Rhys's struggles to break through the confines of his world and touch something Other in the beyond were nothing more than a vaguely interesting novelty to the thing he managed to contact.

Now wasn't the time to feel put-out either, though. He'd _succeeded_ , and he had more important things to focus on anyway. Rhys gently took the glass from Ellis's hand and set it on the bedside table. "Come to bed, love. I'd like to get some proper rest, and you need it too."

He expected some token resistance, but Ellis turned out to need no convincing to undress and climb into bed, wrapping himself tightly around Rhys with his face pressed into the crook of Rhys's neck. Rhys embraced him in return, rubbing Ellis's back. He was still mostly dressed, but he was comfortable enough to feel sleep beginning to creep up on him near-immediately. His hours laying unconscious hadn't been true sleep; his body might have lain dormant, but his mind had been elsewhere and terribly active.

That was something that people lost themselves to, he'd learned. They became so occupied, so obsessed with the places that the mind could travel without the body and the sights it could find that they ended up wasting away. Rhys would never do that. As entranced as he was by the Other, as pleased with himself as he was at his success, nothing it or anything else could offer him was better than falling asleep with Ellis in his arms.

\---

Rhys woke slowly when warm morning sun began to creep across the room, feeling surprisingly refreshed. Though Ellis was normally the first one to get up and Rhys woke most days to him already puttering around the house and making breakfast, he didn't seem to have moved at all throughout the night and was still clinging to Rhys. He stirred when Rhys stroked his hair, opening his eyes halfway.

"Did I wake you?" Rhys asked him softly.

"Mm-mm." Ellis made a noise in the negative and nuzzled against Rhys's jaw. Rhys turned his head to seek out Ellis's lips with his own, and they shared a lazy kiss. Rhys cupped Ellis's chin and tilted his head up slightly to deepen the kiss, pressing his tongue between Ellis's lips and further into Ellis's mouth when it was accepted. Ellis moaned softly.

After a few moments Rhys pulled back, satisfied and relaxed, but Ellis surprised him by grabbing the back of his head and kissing him again, hard. His fingers scrabbled across Rhys's chest, fumbling with the buttons on his shirt until Ellis got them open, and then Ellis's hand slipped inside to rub over his skin, finding a nipple and tweaking it. Though he gasped in surprise, Rhys wasn't inclined to complain. Ellis being in the mood in the morning was a rare enough occurrence that Rhys wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

Ellis shifted, swinging one leg properly over Rhys's waist and moving to straddle him and press him down into the mattress. He held Rhys's arms down and kisses him over and over, leaving Rhys panting.

"What's gotten into you?" Rhys asked with a breathless laugh when he had a moment to speak. Ellis pulled back to look down at him, and instead of the desirous look Rhys expected, his expression was stern. "What's wrong?"

"You _scared_ me," Ellis said shortly. "Do you have any idea..." His hands moved to Rhys's chest again, palms pressing flat to feel Rhys's heartbeat and breath underneath them.

"Ellis..." Rhys reached up to him, placating and intending to cup his face, but Ellis moved back, still frowning. "I did warn you-"

"You have _no idea_ what it was like!" Ellis snapped. "Hearing you scream like that and knowing that if I tried to do anything to help, it would make everything worse. Not knowing how long you were going to stay unconscious- if you'd _ever_ wake up-" His voice cracked, and he slumped back down, burying his face in the crook of Rhys's neck again. "You warned me, but I didn't understand," he said, voice muffled. "I wouldn't have let you do it if I had. I hated myself for not stopping you."

Rhys cradled the back of his head, turning slightly to press his lips against Ellis's temple. "El... if anything _had_ gone wrong, it wouldn't have been your fault-"

"That's easy for you to say," Ellis said, and Rhys was startled at the bitterness in his voice. "Sure, I wouldn't have made it happen. I'd still have a vegetable for a husband and have to know that I could have prevented it if I'd been less concerned with avoiding an argument."

Rhys didn't have a response for that. He'd hardly doubted himself for a moment, and Ellis's reluctant acquiescence to letting him try one of his magical experiments he'd apparently taken for granted. He'd been content in the assumption that the proof of his theories and his newfound powers would be enough to put him in the right. Terrifying and upsetting his partner had hardly been part of the plan; Rhys had accepted that it would be a distressing experience and had tried to inform Ellis accordingly, but he hadn't considered the possible extent of it.

Vindicated as he had been, happy as he had been, it didn't matter. Guilt and regret settled in the pit of his stomach. And of course, almost as though mocking him, he felt a stir of something that might have been interest and curiosity.

 _Fuck off_ , Rhys thought sourly at the thing. _Stay quiet until I call on you. That's how this works._

Even more surprisingly, the presence receded without whatever might have passed for argument. Rhys decided that was something to muse on later, when he wasn't preoccupied. He focused back on Ellis and tenderly stroked his hair.

"El, I'm sorry," he said finally. "I didn't mean for it to be so bad for you. If I'd realized..." _Would_ he have listened and not gone through with it? He liked to think that he wouldn't have knowingly pursued something that would make Ellis suffer. But he could be obsessive, so focused on results, and he knew that. It was an unpleasant hypothetical to consider.

"I know you didn't mean it," Ellis said quietly. "I'm not forgiving you for scaring me. But I know."

Rhys took a deep breath and turned Ellis's face up so they could look at each other. "I'll accept that," he said with a faint smile. He stroked his thumb over Ellis's cheekbone. "Is there anything I can do...?"

Ellis cupped the back of Rhys's neck and kissed him again, softly this time. "Stay in bed with me. Let me just... feel you. I thought I might not get the chance again."

"I can do that." Rhys murmured against his lips. He squeezed Ellis tight. "I can do that," he repeated, to both of them.

There was the faintest touch of something again like curiosity from the thing clinging to his consciousness, but once again, it didn't argue.

**Author's Note:**

> I think this is my first work on here in a while centered entirely on original characters. These guys aren't from a campaign, I had the story idea first and made characters to fit it.
> 
> Rhys is a half-elf warlock with the pact of the Great Old One, and Ellis is also a half-elf but does not have an adventurer class. In game terms, he's an NPC.


End file.
